(Zhulodok, Void Gorger | Art by Lius Lasahido)

Hey friends! Andy from the Scrap Trawlers here, ready to give you the lowdown on a very high-mana precon.

It’s been like a week, so of course new product is coming out soon. The new product we’re looking at is Commander Masters, a premium reprint set full of some of Commander’s biggest hitters. 

And with this new set comes four precons (a first for a Masters set), each with 10 new cards and a bevy of hot reprints. And it just so happens that today we’re talking about the first ever colorless precon, Eldrazi Unbound. It’s led by Zhulodok, Void Gorger.

Void Gorgeous

Zhulodok is a 7/4 Eldrazi for six mana that gives colorless spells with mana value seven or greater that you cast from your hand Cascade…twice! 

We’ve seen Cascade commanders before, like Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder, Abaddon the Despoiler, and my personal favorite, Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty, but never one with such a steep requirement for the Cascade trigger. Sure, Imoti’s requirement is only one less, but it doesn’t have the “from hand” stipulation.

Here’s the full decklist:

The backup commander is Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate, a 0/0 Spirit Naga (did you expect another Eldrazi? How foolish of you) that costs XX and gets a +1/+1 counter whenever you put one or more on another colorless creature. It also manifests cards from your library when it dies. 

I’m just going to point this out here instead of waiting until the end. Having X spells in a Cascade deck makes zero sense. If you Cascade into Omarthis, it just dies instantly. Useless. And it’s not the only X spell in the deck. Omarthis is completely out of place in this list, not only because it’s not Eldrazi even though it easily could have been, but it also doesn’t actually work as the deck’s commander either, because there’s only a small handful of cards that add +1/+1 counters in the list. A real misfire in this deck, but a potentially good commander for its own deck filled with creatures with Modular, or in the 99 of a Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp deck.

What It Do?

What’s this deck all about? We’ve seen plenty of four- and five-color decks whose main goal is to play many colors. But what do we do with a deck that wants to play no colors? 

The goal of the deck is to get as much value as possible out of Zhulodok’s double Cascade trigger. That’s why it’s running 15 spells of mana value seven or more, with four X spells that can also fit the mold. This sounds like a lot. And it definitely is. We’ve got a massive average mana value of 4.6 in this deck (and realistically that number should be even higher since our X spells count as zero in the average calculation). Because of this, the deck also runs a lot of ramp (my count is 18). Not all of it is cheap, though, so expect some slow games (more on this later).

With the name Eldrazi Unbound, you might expect some synergy with the Eldrazi creature type. But that’s definitely not what this deck is doing. In fact, there are only 10 Eldrazi in the deck, which is a bit misleading, if you ask me.

The only real path to victory is combat. The deck is full of fatties whose only purpose in life is to smash face. And they do that well. However, as a colorless deck, you have few ways to protect your stuff from removal. Keep that in mind when you’re considering filling up the board. Warping Wail is great for stopping a board wipe, but it’s just one card in the deck.

Rock Lords

So how does the deck play? A bit slow, unsurprisingly. Even with 18 ramp sources, the deck can struggle if you don’t hit ramp early. In fact, I highly recommend you don’t start the game until you’ve got a starting hand with some cheap ramp. Without it, you won’t be participating in the game until turn seven or later. 

Zhulodok is crucial. The deck does very little without it except look like a circa ‘94 kitchen table deck filled with Craw Wurms and other high-cost creatures. The commander is the only real source of value in the deck, so protect it at all costs. In fact, the deck’s designers want you to rely on Zhulodok so much that they’ve weakened the rest of the card advantage suite in the deck. From my experience, this usually isn’t a smart way to build.

I mentioned this before, but the deck does run some X-cost creatures, which feels really bad when you Cascade into them. They’re obviously in there to support Omarthis, but they’re not great with Zhulodok.

In playtesting the deck, I found myself regularly not doing anything except ramping until turn six or seven. And nothing impactful came out of the deck until Zhulodok was on the board. Relying on your commander this much, especially one with a high mana value, can be a bit disheartening. So I wouldn’t bring this deck to anything but the most battle cruiser-y games.

Unbound. Moisturized. In My Lane

Okay kids, it’s time to talk about the best thing about Commander precons. And that is…? Kids all shout, “New Cards!” That’s right, it’s the new cards. In addition to the two legends that can lead the deck, we’ve got eight other toasty new treats for colorless fans.

We’ll start with the only other new Eldrazi in the deck besides Zhulodok (seriously), and that’s Flayer of Loyalties. For 10 mana, you get the biggest, meanest Threaten you’ve ever seen in your life. But I’ve got one complaint. Just one. And that’s that it’s 10 power instead of 11. With 11 power, you could steal someone’s commander, strap on a Fireshrieker (included in the deck), and potentially kill an opponent with their own commander (assuming they can’t block). Killing someone with their own commander is one of the most satisfying ways to win a game, but 20 damage just won't cut it. Otherwise, this card is sick.

We’ve got Abstruse Archaic, who also isn’t an Eldrazi, and doesn’t cost seven or more mana. What it does do is copy abilities. We saw something similar last year with Dominaria United’s The Peregrine Dynamo, a card that was severely hampered by its non-commander clause. Abstruse’s only requirement is that the source be colorless. Copying an Aetherflux Reservoir activation is pretty exciting, no?

Our last new creature is Skittering Cicada, whose flash ability is a sort of upgrade on Shimmer Myr (unless you’re playing colored artifacts), and also similar to Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter. Obviously the goal with this guy is to make him real big and punch faces. Simple enough. Just get some boots and a Fireshrieker on him.

Darksteel Monolith is an all-star in the deck, as it not only triggers Cascade from Zhulodok, but then it lets you cast another big spell for free if you’ve got one. And with Skittering Cicada, you can cast a free colorless spell on your opponents’ turns too!

Ugin's Mastery sounds decent, in theory. But I think it might be awful in practice. The problem is that 2/2s aren’t all that useful in Commander. Especially if it’s not actually a creature card (creatures make up only a third of the deck). Yeah, the free flip when you attack with six or more power can be great, but since you’re likely to be attacking with a Wastes, I don’t think there’s consistent payoff in this deck. But maybe in a deck where you build around it…

Over to instants and sorceries. Desecrate Reality is going to be fantastic in some games. But there will also be games where the thing that’s wrecking your plans has an even cost. I like that it’s instant speed. In fact, I would argue that the card would be pretty bad if it were a sorcery. As it is, it’s okay.

Calamity of the Titans has an effect that I’ve never been a fan of: mass exile. At no time do I ever want to lose my stuff forever, even if I get rid of some other threats. But that's just my personal preference.

And we’ll end with the one that got a few people salivating, Rise of the Eldrazi. For 12 mana, you too can destroy a permanent, draw four cards, and take an extra turn. The self-exile stings, but is probably necessary to stop infinite turns shenanigans.

Final Thoughts

Alright, time for my verdict on this deck. Is it worth picking up at your friendly local game store?

Verdict: Skip it. Unless…

This one was a bit challenging to give a final verdict on. While the gameplay is a bit dull, and some cards just plain don’t work in the deck, I also have to take value into consideration.

The reprints in this deck, as with the other three from this set, are pretty stacked. And, considering how much these decks are selling for, they freaking better be. The biggest hitter here is It That Betrays. But there are a handful of other high-price reprints, like Kozilek, the Great Distortion, All Is Dust, Eldrazi Temple, and Forsaken Monument. We also have to consider the fact that all of the new singles are pre-selling for ridiculous prices, with Zhulodok alone preselling for over $60. 

So, unless you can find the deck for a reasonable price (quite a bit lower than the $150 that it’s currently selling for on TCGPlayer), it’s a pass.

What do you think? Can we make this deck better? Go check out my Upgrade Guide to find out if I was able to make this deck more polished without mortgaging my house again.

Until next time, from us here at Scrap Trawlers, remember to budget…before you buy it.

Scrap Trawlers

Scrap Trawlers is a Magic: The Gathering budget EDH streaming and video group, with gameplay, deck techs, chats, and more. Catch our videos at youtube.com/scraptrawlers. Andy, Lenny, and Bert.